Francis Graffard has had his horses on song from early spring, and anyone who felt that the trainer surely could not maintain such a good run of form is now being proved wrong. He is so far clear of Andre Fabre in the French trainers' table that a first champion title for Graffard is starting [...]

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that eight days after this year's BBAG Yearling Sale, the team behind the German sales company could be celebrating a British Classic winner.  Already runner-up in the Derby and third in the Irish Derby, Lazy Griff is now being aimed at the St Leger on September 13. [...]

It would be fair to say that Monday night's annual general meeting of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (TBA) was not a laugh a minute, but, as TBA chairman Philip Newton outlined, there is not much cause for levity in British racing and breeding these days.  Rising costs, stagnant or falling prize-money in the lower tiers, [...]

There's no jumping off the merry-go-round now that the yearling sales are in full swing, and this week's action will take the travelling show to Newmarket and Baden-Baden for Tattersalls Somerville and Germany's premier yearling sale at BBAG. The latter should expect a stampede, as the word around the grounds is that Wednesday's Ryanair flight [...]

Lightning couldn't strike twice, could it? In a sense it already has. Gerard Augustin-Normand, who made his entrance to the world of Thoroughbred racing with Prix du Jockey Club winner Le Havre, recently celebrated victory in the Grand Prix de Paris with Le Havre's son Leffard. The colt had been born a month before the [...]

We've seen ebullient yearling markets in Japan, America and France so far this year and now Britain enters the fray with what for many is a favourite sale of the year.  No matter how long it has now been Goffs UK, the sales company formerly known as Doncaster Bloodstock Sales (DBS) will always be Donny. [...]

Last Sunday, Christophe Soumillon was doing what he has become famed for: riding a Group 1 winner. In this case it was Diego Velazquez in the Aga Khan Studs Prix Jacques Le Marois for those celebrated racing names of Aidan O'Brien and Sam Sangster. Soumillon's name is of course equally celebrated, but as a young [...]

YORK, UK — What a day, or perhaps that should be, oh, what a Night. Fresh from providing the €3m top lot at Arqana on Monday, Night Of Thunder was by Wednesday ruling the Knavesmire, courtesy of his sons Ombudsman and Gewan. In Ombudsman, Godolphin and the Gosdens have the classic late improver, who set [...]

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE — By Monday, it was noticeably quieter around the sales pavilion. The weekenders had packed their bags and many of the Brits had started to make their way back across the Channel, heading north for the promise of four days of top-class racing at York. But, where it mattered, things were still pretty [...]

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE — There have been few more rapturous receptions to a winner in the usually reserved enclosure of Deauville than that given to Diego Velazquez on this sweltering Sunday afternoon. Sam Sangster completed what could well be one of the most significant deals of his career earlier this week, ensuring that the Frankel colt [...]

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE — One of the happiest men at Arqana on Saturday was a Tatts man. Yep, you read that right.  Tattersalls' marketing director Jason Singh contemplated leaving Deauville early in order to watch his syndicate horse Furthur in action but, having stayed put, he yelled the horse home from the Arqana sales complex instead. [...]

“She has played her part,” says Pierre Gasnier with some understatement as a gaggle of visitors to the Aga Khan Studs gazes at Zarkava, now enjoying her retirement at the age of 20. With Thoroughbreds, it is the race records that separate the great from the good from the downright ordinary. Zarkava's stands her apart [...]